Modular Agility Device

ABSTRACT

In one aspect, the present disclosure provides a grid member useful for constructing an exercise grid, said grid member comprising: a first end and a second end, the first and second ends being attached to a connector, the connector comprising a first narrow end and a second wide end. In another aspect, the present disclosure provides an exercise grid comprising a plurality of grid members, the grid members comprising: a first end and a second end, the first and second ends being attached to a connector, the connector comprising a first narrow end and a second wide end.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION A. Field of the Invention

This invention relates to exercise equipment, and in particular to amodular agility device that in one embodiment is a grid member usefulfor forming an exercise grid.

B. Background of the Invention

Athletes frequently will perform various drills to try and improve theirphysical performance. In many cases the drills used do not directlyinvolve the sport for which the athlete is training. For example, manyfootball trainers will spend time lifting weights to increase strength,but no one lifts weights during an actual football game. It is wellknown that many athletes will perform better when they develop certainskills. It is also true that specific drills can be utilized to developparticular skills and capabilities.

Many athletes will use various drills to improve fundamental motionskills. One type of implement which can be used is an exercise ladder.Many different exercise ladders are available, and they can be used in awide variety of drills to improve the agility, speed, coordination,balance, quickness and other traits of an athlete. In some cases,several tires can be set in a line, and an athlete will run through thetires while stepping in the middle hole as they progress. Alternatively,exercise ladders can be laid on a playing surface and the athlete willperform various drills while moving through the ladder.

There are a great many different types of drills which are possible witha simple exercise ladder device. Many of the drills aid an athlete todevelop quick motion of the feet, improve coordination, and shortenstart time. This can make an athlete quicker and more agile on theirfeet. For many sports, an athlete may try to increase the speed of thestarting motion in any direction from where they are standing. Theathlete may desire to begin moving quickly straight behind them orstraight forward, or to the left or right, or anywhere in between. Theathlete desires a quick start in any possible direction.

One of the best ways to improve performance is to practice the desiredmotion. Practicing starting in every possible direction can aid anathlete in gaining a quicker start, regardless of the direction in whichthe athlete will be moving. In many sports, agility and quicknesstraining is one aspect of an overall training program. It is notuncommon for exercise ladders to be used for agility and quicknesstraining for a portion of a practice period, and then other drills andpractice techniques are used for the rest of the practice period.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

In one aspect, the present disclosure provides a grid member useful forconstructing an exercise grid, said grid member comprising: a first endand a second end, the first and second ends being attached to aconnector, the connector comprising a first narrow end and a second wideend. In another aspect, the present disclosure provides an exercise gridcomprising a plurality of grid members, the grid members comprising: afirst end and a second end, the first and second ends being attached toa connector, the connector comprising a first narrow end and a secondwide end.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 is a top view of one embodiment of the grid member.

FIG. 2 is a top view of two grid members joined together.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

Now referring to FIGS. 1 and 2, the present disclosure provides a gridmember 10 that has a first end 12 and second end separated by a rod 16.The grid member 10 includes an upper fabric 18 and a lower fabric 20.The upper and lower fabrics 18, 20 are connected together, and can forma pocket for the rod 16. Stitching can be used to connect the upper andlower fabrics 18, 20, but other connection techniques can also be used,such as gluing, hook and loop connectors, rivets, or other techniquesknown to those skilled in the art.

In one embodiment, the upper fabric 18 can have an upper fabric colorand the lower fabric 20 can have a lower fabric color, where the upperfabric color is different than the lower fabric color. Providingdifferent colors on the upper and lower fabrics 18, 20 allows a user toselect a color for the grid member 10 when in use. Providing contrastingcolors can allow for a grid member 10 which is useful with a widervariety of playing surface colors while still providing good visibility.

The upper and lower fabrics 18, 20 should be constructed of a durablematerial. The grid member 10 may be stepped on frequently in use, andthe athlete may be wearing cleats or other sharp footwear. The athlete'sfoot may also be twisted while placed on the grid member 10, which canincrease the rate of wear and tear. The grid member 10 can also be leftout in the sunlight for extended periods, so material which is able towithstand ultraviolet light from the sun has certain advantages. Inaddition, the upper and lower 18, 20 can be somewhat soft such that ifan athlete were to fall on the grid member 10, the athlete may have areduced chance for injury from abrasion or cuts. The upper and lowerfabrics 18, 20 can be made of flat or tubular webbing, but othermaterials can be used as well, including but not limited to nylon,cotton, wool, or a wide variety of other materials.

The rod 16 is positioned between the upper and lower fabrics 18, 20 andextends substantially from the first end 12 and the second end 14, butgenerally the rods 16 stop short of each first and second end 12, 14.The rods 16 are firm so as to maintain the shape of the grid member 10.The rods 16 can have some minimal flexibility such that they will bendsomewhat, but the rods generally will try to return to a generallystraight shape. The rods 16 are long, and the rod 16 cross section canbe round, flat, oval, or almost any other shape.

The grid member 10 has a connector 22 on each of the grid member's 10first 12 and second ends 14. The connector 22 is useful for connectingone or more grid members 10 together to form an exercise grid (alsoknown as an agility grid). The connector 22 is configured such that theconnector 22 of one grid member 10 connects to the connector 22 ofanother grid member 10. The connection may be accomplished in manydifferent methods, but one preferred embodiment is through the use ofhook-and-loop fabric (or VELCRO®) such that the hook fabric of oneconnector 22 attaches to the loop fabric of another connector 22 thusattaching the grid members 10 to one another. Generally, whenhook-and-loop fabric is used, one side of the connector 22 will have theloop fabric while the opposite side of the connector has the hookfabric.

In one embodiment, the connector 22 has a narrow end 24 and a wide end26. The narrow end 24 is placed between the upper and lower fabrics 18,20 before the upper and lower fabrics 18, 20 are joined together (as viastitching or the other methods referenced herein) thus securing thenarrow end 24 of the connector 22 to the grid member 10. Alternatively,a brad may be used to attach the narrow end 24 of the connector 22 tothe grid member 10. In this embodiment, the brad passes through theupper fabric 18, the narrow end 24 and lower fabric 20. One advantage ofusing the brad to secure the connector 22 to the grid member 10 is thatthe brad allows the connector 22 to rotate independently of the gridmember 10.

Further, in one preferred embodiment, the overall length of theconnector 22 is about 2.0 inches. In this embodiment, about 0.50 inchesof the connector 22 is placed between the upper and lower fabrics 18, 20while about 1.50 inches of the connector 22 extends from the first andsecond ends 12, 14 of the grid member 10.

The connector 22 may have an aperture 26 in its wide end 26. Thisaperture 28 may be circular or more of an oblong shape. This aperture 26is useful for storing the grid member 10 on racks or other devices as arack extension or other device may pass through the aperture 28.

The shape of the connector 22 is important for the function of the gridmember 10 as it imparts a great deal of flexibility in the connectionbetween a first grid member 10 and a second grid member 10. Thenarrowing portion of the connector 22 between the narrow end 24 and wideend 26 allows the connector to bend or flex.

A plurality of grid members 10 may be connector together to form anexercise grid which 30 can be used for athletic training drills, asshown in FIGS. 3-4. The grid 30 may include a number of running strips32 and crossing strips 34, where each strip can be positioned in agenerally straight line which can intersect several other lines. Eachstrip 32, 34 includes the entire generally straight line, even thoughthe line can be broken down into shorter pieces. It may also be possibleto position the exercise grid 30 such that a strip 32, 34 does not makea straight line. The running strips 32 and crossing strips 34 define aseries of quadrilaterals, which in one embodiment can be squares 36. Theexercise grid 30 as shown includes nine squares 18, so the exercise grid30 is said to be a 3×3 grid where the number 3 is referring to thenumber of squares 36. The squares 36 are open space, or just holes, soan athlete steps directly on a playing surface when stepping in a square36.

The exercise grid 30 is intended for exercising, so dimensions areestablished which approximate the average step of a person. Based onexperimentation, it has been determined that the squares 36 havedimensions of essentially 20 inches by 20 inches. In this description,the word “essentially” means plus or minus 1 inch unless otherwisespecified. The 20 inch by 20 inch square 18 has been found to fit thenormal step of people of very different sizes. This is a functional sizefor very large people, and it is still useful for people having ashorter stature. It has also been found that an exercise grid 30 with 20inch squares is relatively easy to set up, move, and take down. However,if the squares 36 become much larger than 20 inches it becomes moredifficult to manipulate the exercise grid 30 by a single person. A 3×3grid 10 with 20 inch squares is 5 feet wide, and increasing the squaresize by just 4 inches gives a grid 10 that is 6 feet wide by 6 feettall. To form an essentially 20 inch by 20 inch square 38, the use ofrods 16 which are essentially 18 inches long can be effective. Orcourse, other rod 16 lengths should be considered within the scope ofthis disclosure as the rod length 16 can be varied depending upon thedesired size of the exercise grid 30 or the quadrilateral to be formedtherein. Other preferred lengths of rods 16 are 12.00 inches and 8.00inches.

The exercise grid 30 may be positioned flat on a surface or may includeone or more 3-D elements. The inclusion of 3-D elements is made possibledue to the unique connection (as described above) of one grid member 10to another grid member 10. The inclusion of 3-D elements allows one toconstruct various obstacles within the exercised grid 30 such that anathlete may have to jump higher than normal to move from one position toanother within the exercise grid 30.

While the invention has been described with respect to a limited numberof embodiments, those skilled in the art, having benefit of thisdisclosure, will appreciate that other embodiments can be devised whichdo not depart from the scope of the invention as disclosed here.Accordingly, the scope of the invention should be limited only by theattached claims.

1. A grid member useful for constructing an exercise grid, said gridmember comprising: a first end and a second end, the first and secondends being attached to a connector, the connector comprising a firstnarrow end and a second wide end.
 2. The grid member of claim 1 whereinthe grid member further comprises a rod spanning the substantially thelength between the first end and the second end.
 3. The grid member ofclaim 2 wherein the rod is enclosed between a upper and a lower fabric.4. The grid member of claim 3 wherein the narrow end of the connector isbetween the upper and lower fabrics.
 5. The grid member of claim 1further comprising a upper and lower fabric and wherein the narrow endof the connector is between the upper and lower fabrics.
 6. The gridmember of claim 1 wherein the connector comprises hook-and-loop fabricon the large end.
 7. The grid member of claim 4 wherein the connectorcomprises hook-and-loop fabric on the large end.
 8. The grid member ofclaim 7 wherein the connector is attached to the grid member via a brad.9. The grid member of claim 6 wherein the connector is attached to thegrid member via a brad.
 10. The grid member of claim 1 wherein theconnector is attached to the grid member via a brad.
 11. The grid memberof claim 1 wherein the connector comprises an aperture on the large end.12. The grid member of claim 9 wherein the connector comprises anaperture on the large end.
 13. An exercise grid comprising a pluralityof grid members, the grid members comprising: a first end and a secondend, the first and second ends being attached to a connector, theconnector comprising a first narrow end and a second wide end.
 14. Thegrid member of claim 13 wherein the connector comprises hook-and-loopfabric on the large end.
 15. The grid member of claim 14 wherein theconnector is attached to the grid member via a brad.
 16. The grid memberof claim 15 wherein the connector comprises an aperture on the largeend.